I got my information from listening to a series of lectures on the History of English Language by Prof.
Seth Lerer. If you've got the time, it's fascinating. He goes back as far as Anglo-Saxon, which are some of my favorites. Did you know the former English word for the body was "bone locker?" And the ocean was known as the "whale road?" So poetic. The Great Vowel Shift was new to me. Anyway, I highly recommend the tapes / downloads. You can skip whole lectures if they look boring and still have plenty to listen to.
http://www.thegreatcourses.com/tgc/courses/course-detail.aspx?cid=2250
They've got scads of other areas like science, health, arts, etc.
:0)
This message was edited 3/4/2014, 4:11 PM